1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-vehicle illumination device and, more specifically, to an improved illumination device in which a room lamp and a mirror (vanity mirror) are integrally provided.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a vehicle, a roof section is provided with an illumination device for illuminating the inside of the vehicle during the night, for example. For use as such an illumination device, commercially available is the one in which a room lamp is integrally provided with a mirror (vanity mirror). Examples include Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2003-118479), and Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2007-22141). Also commercially available is an illumination device provided not only with a room lamp but also with a map lamp, which is used for illumination of limited range of area. There is also an illumination device offering indirect lighting with the high rendering effect, and an example thereof includes Patent Document 3 (U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,917).
The illumination devices of Patent Documents 1 and 2 are indeed reduced in size due to the integral provision of a room lamp and a vanity lamp. A light from the room lamp is utilized also when the vanity mirror is in use so that the vanity mirror is indeed increased in the use of convenience. The light of the room lamp is generally so selected that the color and illuminance thereof suit the illumination inside of a vehicle, and thus the light of the room lamp is not always suited for the use of the vanity mirror. Patent Documents 1 and 2 both describe no such fact, and give no specific consideration about the rendering effect to be produced by the light.
On the other hand, as is mounted to the ceiling of a vehicle, the illumination device is expected to be small in size in view of leaving the inside space of the vehicle large and wide. Any improvement in view of design is also desired therefor because the illumination device is rather often in sight. The illumination device is also expected to be more versatile because consumers' expectations therefor are very high.